Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has said the power bill for lifting Godavari waters under the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation project may be too high but there is no other alternative to the State other than lift irrigation.
He said the power bill might come to ₹10,000 crore or ₹15,000 crore. But to save farmers from distress and suicides, government would bear the expenditure and provide irrigation facility to the farmers till they became self-reliant. The government would not take any criticism seriously on the cost of lifting Godavari waters as it is required to irrigate lands in Telangana.
Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao was responding to the views of members on the Bill to replace the State Commission for Debt Relief (Small farmers, agricultural labourers and rural artisans) (Amendment) Ordinance in the Assembly on Thursday. He also defended the amendment to bring in an expert in agriculture and farmers issues to head the Commission in place of a retired High Court Judge.
The decision was taken based on the advice of experts and a person well versed with the issues of farmers and artisans would be appointed as the Chairman of the Commission. He said as nationalised banks are only giving 42% of loans required by farmers and artisans, many were taking loans from private money lenders.
MIM MLA Akbaruddin said that though the government introduced Rythu Bandhu, an exemplary scheme to help farmers, the number of farmers’ suicides came down but did not stop. There is some gap somewhere which should be addressed. The government’s focus on irrigation projects is laudable but a massive project like Kaleswaram would have its own challenges to lift water. He hoped the government would complete all the irrigation projects to provide water to barren lands in the State.
Congress MLA Bhatti Vikramarka said it would be better for a retired judge to head the Debt Relief Commission to take decisions without bias. In Kerala too, the Commission is headed by a retired High Court Judge, he said.
BJP member Raja Singh said Prime Minister Narendra Modi introduced several good schemes to help farmers and poor, including Ayushman Bhava. The Telangana government should implement it, he said.
